Tijuana cop, seven others found dead in 24 hours

TIJUANA  The shooting death of a municipal police officer fleeing his assailants was one of eight homicides registered in Tijuana in less than 24 hours, authorities reported Thursday.

Ricardo Salgado Hernández, 36, had finished his shift and was heading home in his personal vehicle about 7 a.m. Thursday when he was attacked in the Colonia Leandro Valle neighborhood of southern Tijuana, authorities said.

The assailants' green Ford Explorer struck the policeman’s white Honda, according to the Baja California Attorney General’s Office. The officer ran but was unable to escape.

Salgado had worked for the Tijuana municipal police since 1998. His fellow officers detained one suspect Thursday, but authorities did not discuss a possible motive for the shooting.

The most recent killings marked an unusually violent stretch in Tijuana, which has seen a drop in violent crime. Last year’s homicide total of 364 was the lowest since 2007.

The most recent killings, which occurred between 10 a.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday, brought this year’s death toll to 14.

Tijuana police said the crimes follow a pattern of post-holiday spikes in violence in the city that occur early in the new year. “We’ve felt felt that the return of some criminals from their home states could lead to an increase,” Tijuana Police Chief Alberto Capella told reporters Thursday. He said his department is taking additional measures in high-crime areas.

The majority of the killings were related to disputes between neighborhood drug dealers, said Jorge Aguirre Carbajal, a coordinator in the organized crime unit of the state attorney general’s office.